View full sizeDaniel Acker/BloombergFour employees of the Division of Taxation were fired and one resigned as the result of an investigation that state workers spied on the private income tax records of co-workers, officials said.

TRENTON — The Department of Treasury said Monday four employees of the Division of Taxation were fired and one resigned as the result of an investigation that state workers spied on the private income tax records of co-workers.

"We take the privacy of people’s personal tax records very seriously," Andy Pratt, a spokesman for the Treasury Department, said.

Pratt said the Division of Taxation received an initial complaint that employees were improperly accessing income tax records in March but didn’t begin an internal investigation until September.

So far, he said, the investigation has only dealt with employees spying on co-workers, and that officials had not received complaints that workers peered into the income tax records of non-employees.

He said each time an employee tries to access the database, a warning flashes that the information can only be used for official business.

Investigators identified 46 possible suspects and after interviewing them in March, the four employees were fired and one quit, Pratt said.

The employees are represented by a local chapter of the Communications Workers of America. The president of the local chapter, Rae Roeder, did not return several phone calls seeking comment.

Pratt said the investigation was continuing, and that officials had put safeguards in place to insure the privacy of income tax records.

He said the division hired an internal auditor to randomly test the system and make to sure it’s being used properly.